Top marks for Synge Street scientists

JUST as the best ideas are sometimes the simplest, the most complicated can also have their uses as proven by the winners of the 48th BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

Taking top honours for their ‘Simulation accuracy in the gravitational many-body problem’, the project of Synge Street CBS Leaving Certificate students Eric Doyle and Mark Kelly could leave you wondering if science is just too darn hard for general consumption.

Their project, which, to the uninitiated, sounds like something thrown up in Arithmancy — the branch of magic concerned with the magical properties of numbers at Hogwarths School of Witchcraft and Wizardry — does, according to Mark, have a more practical application: “If you want to send a satellite to the other side of space you don’t have exact formulas for this so you use an algorithm to do so.”

For those lost at the word ‘algorithm’, Mark went on to explain: “An algorithm is basically a load of mathematical formulas and you give it certain things like position and velocity so we just feed that into our algorithm and it becomes much more effective than other algorithms.”

As part of their project, Mark and Eric, who are both 17-years-old, went on to devise “the most severe tests of comparing simulation of algorithms ever made” and in the process actually devised their own — not just one algorithm but a whole family of algorithms and hybrid algorithms.

For their efforts, the two can look forward to representing Ireland at the 24th EU leg of the competition in Bratislava in September, as well as spending a cheque for €5,000, tickets to the London 2012 Olympics, and, for the mantel, a Waterford crystal trophy.

Professor Pat Guiry, head judge, chemical, physical and mathematical category, said the project “develops a novel mathematical approach which has a diverse range of applications from satellite placement to predicting network congestion in telecommunications” and that an exceptional level of mathematical proficiency was demonstrated.

Best Individual went to Eoin Farrell from St Eunan’s College, Donegal for his project entitled ‘Paediatric resuscitation: How reliable are existing weight estimation methods in Ireland’.

The award for individual runner-up went to Aoife Gregg, from Loreto College, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, for her project entitled ‘Cryptography: A study of the Irish language’ and the award for group runner-up went to Deirdre Harford and& Colleen Kelly from Loreto Secondary School, Balbriggan for their project entitled ‘A search for genes associated with drought resistance in potatoes’.

Almost 40,000 people are expected to have attended the exhibition during the week. It continues today. Around 1,200 students from 30 counties covering 550 projects from 221 schools competed for the title.